Little Vices
by xLilim
Summary: A collection of unrelated Venomously Attractive/Beautiful Disease specials written for all occasions. GinOC
1. Never on Valentine's Day

**Story** : Beautiful Disease

 **Pairing** ( **s** ): Gin|Ren

 **Word Count** : 250

 **Rating** : T

 **Author's Comment** : Valentines in November? Yeah, I have so many Valentine's one-shots that I never completed being re-purposed as short fiction.

If you want to see any couple or character in certain situations from this story, let me know. I'm taking suggestions! If I feel inspired by a suggestion or feel that I can make it work, I'll write them!

 _ **Originally posted on November 23, 2017 for 30 Days of Short Fiction. For more information on 30DoSF, please refer to the pinned entry on at my wordpress, linked available in my profile, or read the vague explanation under the announcements header on my profile page.**_

* * *

 **Never on Valentine's Day**

"What are you doing?" asked Ren, looking up from her book to Gin. His body half over her own, his shihakusho hanging off his shoulder. She slammed her novel shut. "Better question, why are you in my house?"

"I figured we should celebrate with a bang," he said, grinning ear-to-ear.

"Uh-huh." She shifted under his weight. "Celebrate what exactly?"

"Valentine's Day."

"I didn't get you anything."

"Don't want nothin', nothin' ya gotta buy anyway."

"I'm not having sex with you today," she said, deadpanned.

"Any particular reason?"

"I'll fuck you any day of the year except on bullshit holidays catered to idiot couples."

"Yer no fun."

She pushed his face away from hers. "Go to sleep."

Gin dropped down on the futon next to her, resting his chin on her shoulder as she reopened her book to continue where she left off.

She felt unnerved knowing that he watched her that she read the same sentence four times before she realized she was looping the scene she was reading.

She reached up to run her fingers through his hair and sighed, resting comfortably on the mountain of pillows at their backs. "I can't concentrate with you looking over my shoulder."

He didn't answer.

Ren at his face and noticed the steadiness of his breath. She huffed, but the feeling was fleeting. She kissed the top of his head, breathing in the smell of the fresh shampoo in his drying hair, and set her book aside to fall asleep with him.


	2. The Creep

**Story** : Venomously Attractive

 **Pairing** ( **s** ): None

 **Word Count** : 447

 **Rating** : T

 **Author's Comment** : Posting this early because I have a busy day tomorrow. Writing this, I've noticed that Ren and Gin have a lot of history that doesn't get addressed in VA. It's hinted at that Ren avoided Gin when he was still a lieutenant in Fifth Division and this is just a small peek at how it all began.

If you want to see any couple or character in certain situations from this story, let me know. I'm taking suggestions! If I feel inspired by a suggestion or feel that I can make it work, I'll write them!

 _ **Originally posted on November 29, 2017 for 30 Days of Short Fiction. For more information on 30DoSF, please refer to the pinned entry on at my wordpress, linked available in my profile, or read the vague explanation under the announcements header on my profile page.**_

* * *

 **The Creep**

Captain Aizen welcomed them to his division and dismissed them. Ren rubbed the back of her neck as she stepped outside, self-conscious about the shortness of her hair. The pixie cut didn't suit her. It inconvenienced her mostly. She had so many hair accessories that she could no longer wear because of the cut.

Hair grew back. Her decrepit grandmother said the same thing after she cut a huge chunk off the back. She cried enough about it for the past two days, but she felt her tears start to water as she walked further away from the building, seeking an unpopulated area within the division to shake off the emotion.

Ren slipped into the broad alley between two buildings, leaned into a wall, and let out a shuddering exhale. The shadow cast across her body deepened, drawing her gaze skyward to the fox-faced lieutenant sitting at the edge of the roof, the grin spreading across his face widening.

He startled her, heart jolting in her chest.

"Not yer division of choice?" Ichimaru Gin asked.

"What do you care?" retorted Ren, discretely wiping the corners of her eyes.

She turned to leave when the lieutenant jumped down, blocking her way out. She lifted her face to glare at him, noticing the pale blue of his gaze as the surprise evaporated from his face. Her skin chilled, the inside of her mouth dried, and she became suddenly aware of the proximity of his landing to her. There were few men she knew that were even inches taller than she, but it wasn't so much his height that left her stunned, rather the intensity of his presence. He appeared much larger to her and dangerous.

She backed away on instinct. The corner of his grin twitched upward a little.

"Why're ya crying out here?"

"What makes you think I have been crying?"

He briefly pressed his thumb under her right eye, but she jerked back, swallowing thickly. He made her skin crawl.

"Yer jumpy."

"And you're a creep."

He laughed. "Ya sure ya wanna say that ta yer superior officer?"

Ren steeled herself. She had no intention of becoming prey for this man. "I have no problem," she said, her voice calm, "and I will mean no disrespect when I report you for harassment if you don't let me pass."

Gin stepped out of her way.

She walked out from between the buildings, not daring to look back, thoroughly creeped out by the lieutenant's behavior. She decided she would need to steer clear of the man if she intended to survive in this division, but given that he was the lieutenant, it would be impossible. That didn't intimidate her.

11/28/17


	3. Stomachaches

**Story** : Venomously Attractive

 **Pairing** ( **s** ): None

 **Word Count** : 520

 **Rating** : K+

 **Author's Comment** : A first meeting?

There's also a poll up on my profile, so check it out!

If you want to see any couple or character in certain situations from this story, let me know. I'm taking suggestions! If I feel inspired by a suggestion or feel that I can make it work, I'll write them!

 _ **Originally posted on December 4, 2017 for 30 Days of Short Fiction. For more information on 30DoSF, please refer to the pinned entry on at my wordpress, linked available in my profile, or read the vague explanation under the announcements header on my profile page.**_

* * *

 **Stomachaches**

Gin sees her in the middle of the white road dressed in her fine silks and sparkling jewelry. She catches his eye, hunched over with her arms holding her belly and a pained look on her face, and he reminds himself that the cap'n sent him on an errand. He's drawn to her, to the glittering gems in her raven hair. They look like shining beetles.

"Whatcha doin'?" he asks, his shadow cast long against her smaller body.

She whips around, looks him from the top of his silver head to the tip of his sandaled feet with a disdain that reminded him that he was beneath her. She is a noble. She looks pathetic, but in an expensive sort of way.

She frowns. "Nothing."

She has not interest in holding a conversation, but he crouches down in front of her. "Doesn't look like nothin' ta me."

Begrudgingly, she acknowledges him, her voice is a little low and strained, like she's biting back pain. He's familiar with the sound, more so when the person is trying to curse him as he twists his blade to finish the job. "How did a nobody like you become a shinigami so young?"

She sounds curious, too.

"Ya gotta have talent."

"That's conceited."

"Guess so."

She pauses, as if considering his response, and meets his face with eyes as blue as the sapphires encrusted in the willow-styled hairpins in her hair. "Is it fun?"

"D'ya wanna be a shinigami too?"

"I can't," she says immediately, with a certainty that arouses his interest.

He tilts his head to the side. Her cheeks are round and rosy, a quality about them makes him want to pinch them. Her fringe is asymmetrical and it suits the hard angles of her face. She's almost as gangly as him, but her neck is long and elegant. There's a grace about her that he likes. It's natural. Rangiku has it too. Thinking of Rangiku reminds him of his errand.

He needs to go, but he wants to hear her answer. "Why not?"

"Because I need to get married and have a family."

And he thinks, what a waste. It's an unconscious thought and he doesn't quite understand it even when he revisits the thought.

"Who says?"

"My grandmother."

"Ain't that boring?"

"No, I get to wear nice things. Grandmother says I'll get nicer presents from my husband."

He reaches to pull the sapphire encrusted hairpin from her hair. She doesn't flinch. Her eyes are steady on his face, her breathing is normal. He shows it to her. "Like this?"

She snatches the pin from him, but as soon as she does, she regrets it, thrusting it back into his hand. "My stomachache is gone."

A token, he gathers. His grin never falters.

She stands straight and he mimics her movements. She's not much shorter than he is and he was tall for his age.

"Thanks."

She starts to leave before he has a chance to ask her name, but she returns seconds later, snatching the pin from his hand. "Never mind, mother will be hysterical if she notices this missing."

11/30/17


	4. Jealousy

**Story** : Beautiful Disease

 **Pairing** ( **s** ): Gin|Ren

 **Word Count** : 259

 **Rating** : T

 **Author's Comment** : The title is more of a subtlety than anything. It is also a very poor title.

 _ **Originally posted on December 14, 2017 for 30 Days of Short Fiction. For more information on 30DoSF, please refer to the pinned entry on at my wordpress, linked available in my profile, or read the vague explanation under the announcements header on my profile page.**_

* * *

 **Jealousy**

"D'ya think too long 'bout the women I've bed?" asked Gin over dinner.

Ren arched an eyebrow, swallowing the food in her mouth. "You're not ruining my dinner with your bullshit."

"I'm jus' curious."

"You seem curious about a lot of stupid subjects as of late."

He cocked his head to the side. "Am I?"

"Get straight to the point or let me eat in peace."

Gin regarded the different dishes populating their dinning table.

She hated knowing he was up to something as she continued to stuff her face. Not knowing annoyed her almost as much as knowing. There was no winning in whatever game he played with her most of the time.

He started picked at his food. "Should we try for a baby?"

She nearly choked on her drink, but managed to swallow down hard. "Are you deranged?"

"But if ya could, would ya?" he asked, his tone surprisingly honest.

She let the words soak into her skin, feeling a warm prickling start to spread beneath the surface. She looked at him, realizing she had taken to long to respond as his smile grew wider in mockery.

Her face slowly turned color. She tossed her napkin onto the table and rose, having lost her appetite.

"I'm going to bed."

Gin caught her on the way out, wrapping his arms around her and drawing her flush against his chest.

"Is that a yes?" he asked, his lips against her ears.

"It isn't a no," she admitted, eyes downcast.


	5. The Origin of the Hairpin

**Story** : Venomously Attractive

 **Pairing** ( **s** ): None

 **Word Count** : 250

 **Rating** : K+

 **Author's Comment** : Can I say that I've been annoyed by my insistence in the "forgotten first meeting" trope in a lot of my stories ever since I realized it was a trope? Call me out on this if I keep it up, please. That said, hairpin hints have been sprinkled throughout VA and BD, but I don't know how effective my sprinkling was, so, spoiler alert...I guess. lol

Given that this is the last contribution to the 30DoSF for this story, I'm going to be marking this story as "Completed." That said, feel free to continue to follow it for possible future updates.

 _ **Originally posted on December 18, 2017 for 30 Days of Short Fiction. For more information on 30DoSF, please refer to the pinned entry on at my wordpress, linked available in my profile, or read the vague explanation under the announcements header on my profile page.**_

* * *

 **The Origin of the Hairpin**

Gin hears the crunch under his foot after it bounces off his face and steps back. He's broken a sapphire off the heavily encrusted end of the gold hairpin and thinks it looks familiar, though not enough time has passed to justify his bad memory.

He hears the vehement shout of a girl, "Kazuya, you better go find my hairpin!"

"Whatever mother decides to do with you for losing it is on you for throwing it me!" yells a boy with laughter in his voice.

He picks it and the round gem off the floor, reminded of the noble he encountered hunched over in the middle of the road weeks ago. He thinks he caught a glimpse of her running after a smaller boy before hearing the shout and understands he took the hit for that kid.

He shows Rangiku and she threatens him about stealing, grabbing him firmly by the collar of his shihakusho. He raises his hands in an attempt to soothe her because he doesn't get a word in before she finished.

"It fell right in front of me, promise," he says. He doesn't mention creeping behind the trees along the road or how it fell into his possession.

"What do you plan to do about it?" she asks, arms folded across her chest.

"Keep it, of course."

"You'd better return that."

He considers it for a second, but is against the idea after the next. He has it repaired and keeps it as a lucky charm.


	6. Equilibrium

****Story**** : Beautiful Disease

 **Pairing** ( **s** ): Gin|Ren

 **Word Count** : 1375

 **Rating** : M

 **Author's Comment** : I wanted a change of pace, so I wrote this. Enjoy.

* * *

 **Equilibrium**

Their relationship used to rely on their sexual compatibility.

Complications were caused by imbalance, but their worlds were so perfectly maintained that they never spilled into each other. That was until Ren triggered the first shift in their equilibrium, her heart too heavy to carry alone wanted another to share its burden. It took a lot of time before Gin accepted it, and what he did with the weight of her love for him, she didn't know. Sometimes, she preferred not to think of it.

Their relationship still operated on a foundation of balance.

Ren woke in the morning wrapped under Gin's arm. The chilly mornings made it difficult for Ren to even consider leaving Gin's body heat. She snuggled in closer at the same time that Gin began to shift, groaning as he came to from a dream. She fell back asleep for a few minutes, awakening when Gin sat up to yawn. She stayed curled around him, relaxing against the touch of his hand brushing across the side of her head.

Winter and spring were the hardest seasons for her. She liked the warmth of sleeping with another when the morning chill rolled out onto her bedroom. She enjoyed sharing the heat that built up between them throughout the night and wished the hours between sleep and morning—that in between when she indulged in a few extra minutes of light sleep where she felt every moment at an atomic level—were longer. The mornings when their days off synched were her favorites because they slept in until her bones ached and his arm went numb underneath her head.

Summers and the rainy seasons were difficult for Gin. They slept in separate futons at her insistence, but she had a habit of rolling out in the middle of sleep onto the cool tatami. Gin had trouble waking in the mornings on hot days and napped out in the verandah in the afternoons after work. He said he liked the smell of the garden after rainfall. He slept better at night when a storm pelted against her rooftop, but he probably never noticed that he tended to sleep in if the rain continued until morning.

The afternoons that they spent apart were the longest parts of their days unless Ren found herself absorbed by a good manuscript or Gin found someone new to toy with for the day.

It took months upon years before they stopped discussing work. If they had an eventful day, they shared the reason why, sometimes they coupled it with a story that made them laugh. If she had a bad day and wanted to rant, Gin listened, though not without throwing in a joke or two that stoked her ire.

Silence was balance. Death, however, lingered between them like an unspoken promise. Knowledge meant danger. If she blindfolded herself, their fragile stability remained intact. Sometimes…it suffocated her. Equilibrium would then become difficult to maintain. Their lives weren't peaceful or idyllic. They had their long stretches of still, uneventful days marked by their familiar routine, but there were fights. Spending time apart, sleeping in separate rooms, seeing each other in the mornings but not saying a thing, shouting, and idiotic threats. They exchanged everything imaginable in anger.

Yet, as furious as she was, she missed him when he left after a fight. She waited hours into the night working on a stack of paperwork she brought home reading the same paragraph, turning toward the window at every odd sound that might indicate his return. He inevitably found his way back to her home past midnight with the moon shining bright at his back, outlining his tall form, and a grin on his face, saying nothing or appealing to her with crude humor. And she'd take him into her bed, guide him between her thighs as she kissed his lips, their breaths coiled between them, slithering among their tongues.

Nights were a peculiar thing. As their days began, they ended.

Ren looked forward to the evenings, anticipated them like a drought awaited rain. She found the routine charming. She missed Gin throughout the day, though that hardly deterred her focus in her work, and hearing the door open in the distance brought her a smile. Dinner was the only meal they shared, their only opportunity for lengthy conversation—a reevaluation, almost, of their relationship. She picked it apart like a ripe piece of fruit and watched its discarded skin curl as it rotted because the precarious balance of their relationship was always at stake.

"We shouldn't talk 'bout those things."

Things.

Conversation staled. Her taste for food withered. Every muscle in her body wound tight into knots, but her aura offered indifference.

"If not those _things,_ what should we talk about?" asked Ren, always in a different iteration.

Gin, still grinning from ear-to-ear, remained relaxed in his seat across from her with the table between them, beside her with an inch between their shoulders, behind her with her back against his chest—wherever he was at the time of the exchange.

How long before he decided he wanted to stop listening to the same question? How long before he decided that their balance required more effort than he wanted to contribute?

"Things unrelated to our work."

She waited all day for these evenings—the quiet tension in the aftermath of their words, the heaviness of her limbs as she moved from one room to the next, soaking in the bath listening to the drip of water from the faucet and feeling the beads of water drying off her skin, and drying her hair as she entered the room. Sometimes Gin was waiting inside for her prepared to lighten the mood, others he sat in the verandah staring into the starry sky in silence, and when he was in neither room or adjacent porch, he was gone—returned to his home in Third Division. And the nights were longer.

She measured the length of their distance by the knots that formed throughout her body until she felt as twisted as a rag, warped until the cloth stretched to its limit and tattered. And just before Ren began to tug at her dark thoughts to welcome a heartbreak certain to last a century, Gin returned as if he had never gone, appearing in her room in the middle of the night as she entered towel drying her hair.

Ren went with his flow. Sometimes equilibrium required a level of submission to his unique current. Going against it, caused _things_ to overflow and spill over, the weight shifted. As such, she couldn't be with him and he couldn't be with her. Their unity suffered an unrecoverable blow and while skirting around their silences, they avoided encountering it.

Sometimes their balance felt as if it relied heavily on Ren's cooperation and it exhausted her. But…she chose this happiness—waking up in his arms during chilly mornings that made it hard for her to pry her eyes open. If she walked away from it, she wouldn't experience mornings like this.

Precarious as their balance was, Ren would shoulder the burden.

Ren brushed strands of Gin's hair from his forehead wondering if he was only pretending to sleep. His arm rested heavy over her legs, his face pressed against her thigh. His breathing indicated that he was sleeping, but he was good at faking. It didn't matter. He would wake in another five to ten minutes. She only had to wait.

She did so in silence, thinking of nothing and everything at once. Gin moved beside her. Light brightened their bedroom and spiral towers shone bright within them, sparkling like something out of a dream.

"Mornin'," mumbled Gin, rubbing an eye with the palm of his hand.

"Good morning," she responded, a weak smile curling the edges of her lips.

Somewhere outside as life started to make noise beyond the window, Ren sensed a crack in their equilibrium, one that wouldn't heal. It wouldn't last, this brittle relationship of theirs. It wasn't meant to last. She knew.

"Somethin' on yer mind?" asked Gin, still groggy.

"Everything's on my mind." Ren kissed his cheek and pushed the covers off her legs to leave the futon. "I'm going first."

3/31/18


	7. First Snow

**Story** : Beautiful Disease

 **Pairing** ( **s** ): Gin/Ren

 **Word Count** : 226

 **Author's Comment** : This is a "what-if" story to satisfy my need for a Gin/Ren baby. So, we're going to pretend that Ren can have kids of her own and now she has a little Gin spawn running around.

 _ **Originally posted on December 5, 2018 for my 30 Days of Short Fiction. For more information on 30DoSF, please refer to the pinned entry on my WordPress, xlilim – link available in my profile.**_

 _ **I am taking suggestions! If you want to see any couple or character from the story in certain situations, let me know. If I feel inspired by the idea, I will write them! You can PM me, leave a review, or comment on the 30DoSF WordPress page.**_

* * *

 _First Snow_

The first time she experiences winter is a snowflake melting against her rosy cheek. She extends her gloved hand, open upward, and cries, "Rain," with a smile that brightens her face.

Gin presses the toddler's nose like a button and says, "No, silly, it's snow. Snow."

She searches, clinging to Ren, and spots more snow as it tumbles down onto the grass. "Snow! Snow! Snow! More snow!"

"There'll be more snow tomorrow morning, Katsuki," says Ren.

Katsuki wiggles. "Mom, down! Down!"

Ren sets her on the grass and watches her waddle past until she can stand firm on her own two legs. Gin chases after her once she takes off and Ren follows at a steady pace. They roam the garden far and wide, both of them, trying to catch snow in their hands, and Ren smiles.

The next time Katsuki sees snow, she's up early the following morning and jumps between Ren and Gin. She tugs at Ren before hoping onto Gin's back to wake him.

"Dad! Outside!"

Gin takes her out as soon as they have breakfast and Ren stays behind on the verandah. She watches them with a blanket draped over her shoulders and a mug of tea in her hands. She waits for them to finish playing in the snow, hurling snowballs that Gin makes for Katsuki to throw. This is the happiness she wanted.


	8. Is Your Sky the Same as Mine?

**Story** : Beautiful Disease

 **Pairing** ( **s** ): Gin/Ren

 **Word Count** : 207

 **Author's Comment** : You could consider this a slight spoiler as well as a "what if" scenario.

 _ **Originally posted on December 13, 2018 for my 30 Days of Short Fiction. For more information on 30DoSF, please refer to the pinned entry on my WordPress, xlilim – link available in my profile.**_

 _ **I am taking suggestions! If you want to see any couple or character from the story in certain situations, let me know. If I feel inspired by the idea, I will write them! You can PM me, leave a review, or comment on the 30DoSF WordPress page.**_

* * *

 _Is Your Sky the Same as Mine?_

The unrelenting rain rattled the windows of the safe house and the dark skies brightened with the lightning zigzagging through the black clouds. It thundered and the sound shook the bones of the home. Tetsuya brought her a cushioned chair to sit in and she hugged her sword to her chest as she stared past the curtain of water in the window to the darkness stretching out around the house.

She drank hot cocoa with tiny marshmallows floating over its surface and ate a slice of sweet bread. She didn't move from her place. She spoke little to those that came to ask her questions except when the blond leader of the group dropped in, removing the hat from his head.

He grinned at her from the entrance. "You've been awfully quiet, Takudaiji? Something the matter?"

"I just wasted quite a lot of time on a silly thought," Ren admitted.

"Care to share?"

"Don't be nosy." Ren turned away, but her mind settled on the thought. She wondered, wherever Gin was, if his sky was black from the storm clouds and his ears overwhelmed by the roar of thunder and the rush of rainfall. If he looked out the window, did he see the same exact thing?


	9. The Graves We Dig

**Story** : Beautiful Disease

 **Pairing** ( **s** ): Ren/Gin

 **Word Count** : 165

 **Author's Comment** : Some Ren POV in First Person.

 _ **Originally posted on December 21, 2018 for my 30 Days of Short Fiction. For more information on 30DoSF, please refer to the pinned entry on my WordPress, xlilim – link available in my profile.**_

 _ **I am taking suggestions! If you want to see any couple or character from the story in certain situations, let me know. If I feel inspired by the idea, I will write them! You can PM me, leave a review, or comment on the 30DoSF WordPress page.**_

* * *

 _The Graves We Dig_

We dig graves to bury our loved ones, to build atop them a temple from where we come to speak with the ashes and dirt that no longer hold that which I loved, and pray to a god that never listens for a life that doesn't exist.

Yet, I come every evening, once the crickets sing and the clouds roll violet in the starless night, with the cold biting at my bare ankles and my hands heavy with flowers you would've hated, and I sit in front of a stone slab engraved with your name. The stone gleams in the silvery light and the fragrant rice wine that Rangiku doused onto it rises the icy bed at my feet. No one honors you, the cruel snake that betrayed us all, but your absence is felt as though I turned to ashes with you.

I'm there with you in the grave you dug, in the hollow pit alone, our bone fragments quivering to be one again.


	10. Worry

**Story** : Beautiful Disease

 **Pairing** ( **s** ): Gin/Ren

 **Word Count** : 100

 **Author's Comment** : I wanted to write more about Gin/Ren's love child.

 _ **Originally posted on December 23, 2018 for my 30 Days of Short Fiction. For more information on 30DoSF, please refer to the pinned entry on my WordPress, xlilim – link available in my profile.**_

* * *

 _Worry  
_

Gin spends the entire evening thinking up names. He likes to play with the characters of their own names to come up with suggestions, but she wishes he wouldn't rush.

"I don't think we should get so excited," says Ren. "Anything could happen."

Gin shakes his head. "It's gonna be fine, Ren. The baby's gonna be okay. We're gonna be great."

She knows he will be, but she's more worried about herself. What if this baby is not meant to be? What if she loses it? What is the point of all this excitement?

"And if we're not?"

"We will."


End file.
